Matthew Paris's attitudes toward Anglo-Jewry

Although the doubts surrounding Matthew Paris's reliability as a historical source on the one hand, and the awareness of his biased approach toward Jews on the other, are well-known, he remains important, both as a reflection of prevailing fears and expectations in thirteenth-century England, and as an influential factor in shaping the stereotype of Jews for the years to come. It is the premise of this study that Matthew's links with St Albans and his basic antagonism to King Henry III and Pope Innocent IV provided him with a more coherent approach to Anglo-Jewry than is commonly attributed to him, although this coherence was not always conscious or premeditated. Furthermore. Matthew's ambivalent attitudes toward Jews, and Anglo-Jewry in particular, give some indication of the 'climate of opinion' of thirteenth-century England, particularly that of the ecclesiastical and aristocratic élites.